hankyoreh

The Korea Communications Commission voted on November 26 to approve an amendment bill on an ordinance it has authority over and that is an extension of the Broadcasting Act.

The revision significantly relaxes regulations on the ownership of broadcasting companies by business conglomerates. Until now business conglomerates with up to 3 trillion won in assets have been able to have stakes in terrestrial and news or comprehensive broadcasting companies. The change allows companies with up to 10 trillion won in assets to own broadcasting companies.

Media watch and civic groups are already threatening to go to the Constitutional Court over the move, saying that the bill “opens the way for money to enter broadcasting.”

The meeting at which the commission chose to vote on the new ordinance was a scene of stark differences between people associated with the current administration and those in the opposition. Song Do-gyun and Hyung Tae-geun, both commissioners associated with the Grand National Party, supported the change, while Lee Kyung-ja and Lee Byung-gi supported a bill the Democratic Party submitted to the National Assembly that would limit broadcasting ownership to companies having assets under 5 trillion won.

When the debate became heated, highly controversial Commission Chairman Choi See-joong said that “given the unprecedented economic crisis, it is important that we grow the size of broadcasting as an industry, even if that means we set the limit not at 10 trillion won, but at 50 trillion won or 100 trillion won.”

The vote passed three to two.

Criticism of stronger control over broadcasting and the news media by capital-based power is expected to become sharper now that there is legal basis for relaxing the regulations on big business ownership of broadcasting companies. The change will make it possible for companies like Dongbu, Daelim, and Hyundai Construction to enter the broadcasting business, since in effect the 35 companies that rank 23rd and lower on the overall ranking of conglomerates will be able to invest in the industry.

The National Union of Media Workers issued a statement in response to the decision.

The commission, it said, “is trying to expand paid-for broadcasting and broadcasting monopoly and oligopoly by allowing chaebol conglomerates to become involved in broadcasting and expand the range of permissible dual operation of the cable business.”

The statement also called for the “re-setting of the asset scale standard of 5 trillion won, which is the standard for defining ‘business groups with caps on mutual investment’ as defined by the Fair Trade Commission and is thus the definition of a conglomerate.”

The union said it plans to file a constitutional petition with the Constitutional Court, alleging that having big conglomerates in the broadcasting industry is going to lead to distortions originating from corporate interests, which in turn will hurt the people’s “right to know” as defined by the Constitution.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]